THE MELVINS
Nude With Boots
(Ipecac)

HERMANO
...Into the Exam Room
(Regain)

UNLEASHED
Hammer Battalion
(SPV)

RUN YOUR MOUTH
3-Way HC/Garage Split
(Rumour Control)

CABRóN
Mexican Shoe Thief
(Robot Enemy)

A HORSE CALLED WAR
Stumble at Every Hurdle 

(Calculon)

HEATDEATH
S/T 

(Conspiracy)

MORE REVIEWS

Not sure where to start here. Not sure where to end either. I can hear several things, layers of ‘stuff’ being thrown in a blender that spews out some unaffecting concoction of noise, or drone, or experimental music, or post what-have-yous. Quite frankly, I am not getting this Minnesota duo.  I can listen to these two songs, I can sit down and pay attention but I am just not enjoying it. I hear very little artistry and too much abstraction. Too much fluff n the way of the music, I can see the structure of the songs, I just don’t see the elements coming together and forming something. Not even an actual recording. Perhaps I need to think in other terms. Perhaps I love music too much to understand a release that hardly qualifies as such.

This record which is comprised of two ‘songs’ or ‘things’, the first of which is intelligently titled “Side A” (and you guessed it, the second one is titled “Side B”) at times gives hints of actual work. No, apparently it is not like these two put the noises in automatic and let it work itself out randomly. You have to wait for about ten minutes for “Side A” to take shape, and by that I don’t mean the album gets conventional. I just mean there are variations in the music. Noise gets louder, goes in and out of focus, some of the aural aspects of experimental black metal give this track a very stark shade. But that’s merely it. “Side B” is pretty much the same, the only difference is this one comes second and has more mechanical sounds, like those of a space ship traveling the milky way or the heart beat of a life support machine. Pretty boring.